Some part of the 3.5 million voters who were purged in the recent date in Bihar are migrants. Declared as having permanently migrated because they have not been found in a house-to-house verification exercise, they now face disenfranchisement in large numbers. This step which is part of the 2025 Special Intensive Revision (SIR) reveals a flaw inherent in the Indian election process to include the large migrant population in its tally, which can bring into question the democratic rights of an important layer of the Bihar populace.
Why Migrants Are Being Systematically Unwelcomed
The migration sustains the economy of Bihar. Millions migrate on a seasonal basis as labourers or with their families in elaborate ways that do not comply with the sedentary, fixated representation of citizenship as envisaged by the Election Commission. SIR process will wipe out en masse due to erroneously assuming permanent abandonment to temporary absence.
The problems are structural in nature
- Residence Proof: In order to register in a host state, migrants need a property document they often do not have when employed in informal housing.
- Political Resistance: Destination states often interpret migrant enrolment as a threat to local politics and labour markets, placing administrative barriers in the way.
- The Double Bind: Such resistance signifies that migrants are not now in a position to enroll where they are working, not to mention the inability to exercise a vote.
The Implicit Electoral Process: The Silenced Electorate
Administrative hindrances, lack of digital literacy, and social exclusion are a so-called 'triple burden that has long been documented via educational studies, including by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The implication is obvious: there is a negative impact on voter turnout in states with a high migration.
Almost seven million circular migrants emigrate days to Bihar every year Many of them come during festivals such as Chhath and Diwali- which is also often the time of elections. Even those not in the millions will not be able to vote in the 2025 Assembly elections because their names will have been stricken off the list; they will be physically present but they could not vote because their names were struck off the list. This disenfranchisement is more than bureaucratic and it is a great deficit in democracy
The Way Ahead: Portable Voting Rights
The solution involves the transition of a fixed framework into a dynamic framework which accepts the fact of migration.
1. End Blanket Deletions: There should be no more blanket deletions and instead the Election Commission should use more subtle modes, such as cross checking the information with destination states to determine the status of the voter.
2. Introduce movable Systems: India needs to create portable voter identification system, which enables residents who are migrants to vote in their work place without losing their permanent identification at their places of origin.
3. Aggressive Recruitment: Panchayats and civil society can be used to do reach-out and awareness to migrants on voter re-registration. Kerala model of conducting the process of migration surveys can be taken as a prototype by other states to sufficiently track and enfranchise their migrant labour force.
The remittance inflows by the migrants keep the state economy afloat and the national too, with its labour supply. The political voice of them should not be suppressed consequently into the system that does not acknowledge their mobility. Guardianship of their franchise is indispensable to the soundness of the Indian democracy.
Month: Current Affairs - August 23, 2025
Category: current affairs daily